Harper. 2 and a bit weeks.

Well, she’s still lovely!

We’re all slowly adjusting to having Harper here and starting to work out what her different cries actually mean - although generally she doesn’t cry much, only when her bottles are taking too long, or when having her nappy changed.

We had the health nurse come to visit on Tuesday of this week. Harper is doing really well, she’s put on the weight she lost after birth, and weighed in at 3650grams so 10g heavier than her birth weight. She’s 51.5cms long, so now we’re not sure how long she was when she was born, they measured her at 53cms so who knows!

The nurse did point out what her funny looking bum is - a “sacral dimple”. She said that it can be linked to Spina Bifida, but not to panic because Harper doesn’t have that, and also, there’s no hair coming out of it, and it’s complete. She said that when we visit Isla’s paediatrician next time to mention it, they may want to do an ultrasound on it to make sure everything is okay. She also said that with the hip problems on Ian’s side of the family to see whether the paed would like Harper’s hips x-rayed/ultrasound as a precaution. At the moment, they don’t have any click, but the paed at the hospital, as well as the health nurse both said that it can develop later, so we’ll be sure to get that checked out.

She loves being on her tummy up on my chest and often drifts off to sleep like that, and as much as I said there was no way I was going to rock/cuddle another baby to sleep after well over a year of having to cuddle Isla to sleep - I just love having Harper so close to me, and I love knowing that she loves to be close too.

I’ve been trying to sleep when she sleeps, but our bed is quite low to the ground and I swear it feels like my scar is ripping open when I try to get up from it, so I’ve been camped out on the lounge as much as possible, although the nights when Ian stays up with her, I have to go to bed because we have nowhere for Ian to sit otherwise…I think I’ll go to the GP tomorrow or Monday and have the wound checked out, I’m still too chicken to look at it and have a feeling it may be getting a bit gross given that I now have some completely feral stomach overhang which I never had after Isla’s birth.

Isla is still being wonderful with Harper. If she cries, Isla will either cover her ears or will come to us and say, “I think we have a problem here!” LOL The only problem, for lack of a better word, that we’re having with Isla at the moment is that she is really quite loud. Ian and I have different opinions on the matter - Ian thinks Isla needs to be quiet and should be more mindful of the fact that Harper is sleeping/feeding/what-have-you. I, on the other hand, think that Harper should just get used to Isla and the array of noises she makes, after all, most of the noise that comes from Isla is when she walks and considering she has an unusual gait because of her CP, expecting her to walk quietly seems crazy to me. One thing I do know is, I don’t want to have to have a completely quiet house in order to get Harper to sleep. So far, I’ve kept the tv at the same level etc to get her used to the noise, which is what we did with Isla too, and she managed to sleep through any noise.

I haven’t taken many more photos…but here are some that my Mum and sister have taken…